An air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130), the tether formed into a hook (155, 157) and loop or eye (142) configured to be looped about a structure including an inflator (332) to which the air bag and tether are to be secured.
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1. An air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130), the tether (30 or 130) formed into a hook (155 or 157) or hooks (155 and 157) and an eye (142) configured to be looped about a structure to which the air bag and tether are to be secured, wherein the hooks (152 and 154) are secured by a plurality of stitches (156) wherein a remote end (150) having the hooks (155 and 157) is formed into a pointed tip or arrow like structure (160) and wherein to secure the air bag to a frame of a seat, the remote end (150) of the tether (130) is looped about the frame, and the pointed tip or arrow like structure (160) is threaded through the eye (142), subsequently that portion of the tether forming the hook (152 and 154) form a double hook or barbed structure (155 and 157) about the seat is pulled moving the barbed structure or double hooks (155 and 157) toward the eye (142) to secure the air bag to the seat.
6. An air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130), the tether (30 or 130) formed into a hook (155 or 157) or hooks (155 and 157) and a loop or eye (142) configured to be looped about a structure including an inflator (332) to which the air bag and tether are to be secured, wherein the air bag is a curtain air bag (320) and the curtain air bag (320) has a plurality of tabs (322), each tab (322) having an opening (324) for attachment to mounting locations along a roof rail (302), the curtain airbag (320) includes an inlet (330) into which an inflator (332) is placed and the air bag (320) has a location (340) having the tether (30), the tether (30) includes the loop (142) and the tether (30) is secured to a border region (350) of the curtain air bag (320), the tether (30) has the end (150) wrapped about the inflator (332) and then threaded through the loop (142) securing the airbag in the vicinity of the location (340) to the inflator.
2. The air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130) of
3. The air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130) of
4. The air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130) of
5. The air bag (102 or 320) having a tether (30 or 130) of
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The present invention claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/546,528 filed on Oct. 12, 2011 entitled “Air Bag Assembly And Tether”.
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and process of securing an air bag to an adjacent portion of a vehicle or of a seat structure.
More specifically, the invention comprises an air bag assembly comprising an air bag and tether, the tether includes an integrally formed hook and eye connector to secure the air bag to an adjacent structure of the vehicle or vehicle seat.
Reference is made to
The air bag 102 of the present invention, as will be seen below, will be positioned on a seat frame 200 and is configured to provide protection to the occupant's lower torso, or lower and mid-torso or lower, mid-torso and head.
Reference is briefly made to
Air bag 102, as illustrated in
In the prior art, the remote end of the tether is often connected to a metal hook which is inserted within an opening in sheet metal. In one known embodiment, a flexible hook-like structure replaces the metal and is itself pushed within an opening in sheet metal thereby securing the tether and air bag to the sheet metal.
Reference is briefly made to
It sometimes happens that a relatively long inflator 332 is secured to the neck 330 of air bag is 320. As can be appreciated utilizing such a lengthy inflator might obscure mounting hole 304a thereby making it impossible to insert the fastener through the tab opening. In this embodiment of the invention, the tab that might have been located at position 340 is replaced by tether 30.
Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiment of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, that scope is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
Gaiser, John, Young, Jeffrey, Salmo, Shakir
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